What is important about history?

History is very important. Studying history can provide a guide for the future by learning from the past. So many events in history repeat themselves in some ways. The names and the places changes, but if a person looks carefully and studies history, they should see that there are so many similarities between events. If only we would learn from our mistakes, we could make the future better.

World War II started 21 years after World War I ended. Some of the causes of World War II were identical to the cause of World War I. We should have learned from the lessons World War I taught us.

Many countries make the same economic mistakes repeatedly. It is a huge problem when countries print too much paper money. Yet, this problem occurs over and over again, leading to very high inflation.

We did learn lessons from the Great Depression. The Federal Reserve made mistakes that made the Great Depression worse in the 1930s. The Federal Reserve should have lowered interest rates in the 1930s. Instead, they raised rates. In the economic recession of 2000, the Federal Reserve didn’t make the same mistake. They lowered interest rates just like they did in the Great Recession of 2008. Interest rates remain low today.

By learning from history, we can avoid making the same mistakes in the future. History can guide our present actions to make for a better future.